Save The Sonics!

[spurscenter]

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Former Seattle SuperSonics' Gary Payton joins fans in a rally in front the the Federal Courthouse as the case was being tried between the SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett and the City of Seattle on Monday June 16, 2008 in Seattle. Bennett is trying to move the team, Seattle's oldest professional sports franchise, to his hometown of Oklahoma City, two years before the lease expires.

[m33p0]

good luck, seattle.

[exstatic]

F Seattle. They treated the Sonics like the red headed step child, voting new venues for the 'Hawks and the Mariners, but turning them down cold. If you want three major league sports teams in your town, you have to support them all, not just two of them.

[degenerate_gambler]

screw seattle...the city has had numerous opportunities to do what was needed to keep the sonics there..

welcome to okc...

[spurscenter]

3,000 rally loud and proud to keep Sonics in Seattle
Sonics greats Payton, McDaniel address throng at courthouse

By DAN RALEY
P-I REPORTER

Filling a courtyard the size of a basketball floor, they held up clever signs and ate free pizza. They clapped and chanted. Gary Payton and Xavier McDaniel addressed them, and Clay Bennett avoided them.

Related content

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- Transcript from Monday's court proceedings (PDF)

An estimated 3,000 people attended a "Save Our Sonics" rally Monday outside the federal courthouse, hoping to be heard as attorneys presented opening arguments 14 floors up in the six-day trial to determine if the NBA team moves or stays in Seattle next season.

Sticking out among the team loyalists was Spencer Hawes. The locally produced 7-foot center for the Sacramento Kings turned up in a Sonics' Payton jersey covered with fading autographs.

"I'm just here as a fan," Hawes said. "Until the moving trucks come, you have to have hope."

While Sonics followers milled around the courthouse much of the day, rally activities were held for an hour and a half at midafternoon in the cement- and grass-covered front entrance, one decorated with seven bunches of green and yellow balloons.

A public-address system was set up on an adjoining sidewalk and dominated by KJR-AM radio talk show host Dave Mahler, who fancies himself as some sort of activist if not superfan.

He noted how there was great irony that the rally was held opposite a Starbucks store, making an obvious reference to Howard Schultz, the coffee company's chief executive officer and former Sonics majority owner responsible for selling the team to Oklahoma City's Bennett.

"I better not see anyone walking in that store," Mahler advised.

Fans wore a variety of Sonics jerseys, representing players past and present from Vladimir Radmanovic to Kevin Durant.

Elderly women lounged in chairs. Six little girls, each dressed in various Sonics shirts and skirts, skipped in a circle around a courtyard sculpture. A man showed up in a blue Mohawk. Another walked around holding a doll.

Jim and Caroline Everts, a retired couple from Snohomish and both 71, had their own agenda. They wore T-shirts sporting a huge mugshot of Ken Griffey Jr. He held a sign that read "Bring Griffey home," but supplied Sonics allegiance when asked.

"It doesn't look good, but I've got a feeling they'll come to some sort of conclusion that in a couple of years we'll have another team," he said. "It's ridiculous for them to pull out of a place like this."

Signs covered a lot of derisive territory toward Bennett and the NBA in general.

"Boo Hoo Clay, No Team For You."

"NBA -- No Bennetts Allowed."

"NBA -- where fixing 2002 Western Conference Finals happens."

"David Stern, Donaghy called and said he can't fix it."

While four Homeland Security officers looked on, Steve Pyeatt, one of the co-founders of Save Our Sonics, implored the crowd not to get in the way of others attempting to board buses and to stay out of the courthouse flower beds.

"They're worried they'll get trampled like Clay Bennett," Pyeatt quipped.

Chip Kelly, 46, a Seattle resident, left work in the telecommunications field early and brought his son, Bryce, 7, to the rally, one of several dads and kids in attendance.

"I've been a Sonics season-ticket holder for 12 years and a lifelong Seattleite," Kelly said.

"I just wanted to come down here because I've never been to court before," Bryce Kelly said.

Standing nearby was camera-wielding John Misner and his son, John Jr., 6, the latter seated on steps and more interested in the Happy Meal he was eating.

"He didn't want to come," the elder Misner said. "He doesn't understand all this, but when he's older, he'll be interested to see the pictures."

Mahler, the bombastic off-duty radio host, led chants and implored people to buy $10 Save Our Sonics T-shirts. At 4 p.m., he enthusiastically instructed rally goers to surround a taped-off walkway and heckle Bennett on the way out. Everyone moved on command, jostling for a spot. Eighteen minutes later, Mahler sheepishly told everyone that the Sonics owner had left through a side exit.

For the next half-hour, Mahler had to fill while everyone waited for Payton and McDaniel, who were late. The Save Our Sonics group paid for the players' overnight expenses to travel from Las Vegas and Columbia, S.C., respectively. Shawn Kemp was the only other former Sonics player contacted, but he couldn't make the trip.

There was enough of a lull that Mahler crassly pointed out there were a couple of Oklahoma reporters standing nearby and instructed Sonics fans to express themselves, which they did with extended middle fingers.

McDaniel, in T-shirt and shorts and much thicker than his playing days, flashed the peace sign and spoke first, maybe for a minute at the most.

"I want the Sonics to stay," he said. "I want you to raise hell but stay calm. I don't want to say anything bad about Clay Bennett, but let's keep the Sonics here."

Payton, wearing a brown sweater vest, baggy jeans and diamond earrings, was next, waving to the crowd as it chanted, "Gary, Gary, Gary." He spoke for three minutes, telling the crowd how, if inducted into the basketball hall of fame, he would be recognized only as a Sonic.

"This team should not move," Payton instructed. "I don't think it's going to move. I want to raise my jersey to the rafters in Seattle."

The rally broke up when Mahler said he and the former Sonics were going off to a restaurant to drink beer.